


Reunion

by finesharp



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: F/M, May/December
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-12
Updated: 2011-05-12
Packaged: 2017-10-19 07:27:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/198408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/finesharp/pseuds/finesharp
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Hello, Aerith. Having fun?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reunion

**Author's Note:**

  * For [illuminedcraft](https://archiveofourown.org/users/illuminedcraft/gifts).



Aerith watched the party split up as they left the beach. Cloud, of course, followed Tifa away like a puppy dog. Barrett, Red... everyone seemed to have something better to do. She sighed and took herself back to the Inn, figuring she'd catch up on sleep.

She sat up with a start when someone knocked on the door.

"Come on in, Cloud." She didn't really want to listen to him talk about Tifa anymore but she didn't know how to tell him no.

It wasn't Cloud behind the door, though. Professor Hojo stepped inside and shut the door behind him; she realized he must have followed her.

"Hello, Aerith. Having fun?"

"Professor."

"Is that all you can call me now, hm?"

Aerith shook her head. "I didn't understand what you had done to my family when I was little. I didn't know anything outside of your lab. But I know better, now."

"Do you now? And what else do you know?"

"What do you mean?"

He rubbed his hands in excitement. "About the Cetra, obviously. Your mother's people. You've learned something, haven't you? Something that set you on this journey."

She looked down. "Only what you told me."

"Only that? Aerith, I've always been able to tell when you were lying. What would your mother say, that you've grown up to be such a naughty girl?" He tilted his head at her, his expression one of mock-disapproval.

"My mother would have a lot more to say if you hadn't had her shot for escaping," she retorted, crossing her arms.

Hojo's facade cracked, and she was surprised that he sounded honestly hurt. "It was never my intention for her to be injured. Both of you were valuable to me. As specimens, yes, but she was my last link to... well, to a lot of things."

"Things you destroyed, I'm sure." She ran a hand across the threadbare blanket, tracing the designs.

His smile was thin. "Maybe so."

"But that's not why you're here."

"You don't think I would wish to recapture that? Recapture you?" He reached out, his hand brushing along her jaw, and Aerith remembered him doing the same to her when she was a very young child. There wasn't much she remembered of the labs. Her adoptive mother had always told her it was probably for the best, and for the first time, Aerith thought she agreed.

Hojo sat down on the bed beside her. "Let's play a game, Aerith. I'll tell you something you want to know, and you tell me something I want to know."

She flashed back to the lab again, white walls, white sheets, and pushed it away. "I don't know where Sephiroth is, Professor. This isn't some childish game of hide and seek."

"No, but I know things about the Cetra. Things you never had a chance to learn from your mother, secrets she gave up to me."

"Liar. She wouldn't tell you anything."

"Your mother was my friend before she was my project, Aerith. You look like her, do you know that? If you let your hair down..." He reached for her. She pulled away, but reconsidered. She needed to know what he knew. Instead, she reached up and untied the bow in her hair herself, letting the soft brown curls fall in her face.

"So that's the white materia," he murmured, reaching for the sphere.

Aerith's hand snapped closed around it.

"Oh, Aerith, don't you realize how dangerous that is? What it will ask of you?"

"I'm starting to have an idea, but the Planet can only tell me so much. The answers I want- they might even come from you. Professor, please. Surely even you must want to save the Planet. There must be something that you... want..." she leaned forward and kissed him, surprising herself. Yes, the Cetra had loved without reservation - that was what had killed them - but she hadn't expected to feel this.

Judging by the look on Hojo's face, neither had he. "I'm not so desperate-"

"It's not like that," Aerith said quickly, shaking her head. Her hair tickled across her cheeks and she did it again, for the feel of it. "I feel this pull. This connection, with everyone. Like I could heal people if they just let me get close enough." She leaned in again, the cheap hotel bed creaking softly under them. This time when their lips brushed, it was Hojo that pulled away.

"This isn't what I came here for."

"Isn't it, Professor?" She could feel the heat of his body through the lab coat, his breath across her face. Here in Costa, he still smelled like antiseptic and formaldehyde and makou.

"There's so much we could find out if you'd just come back with me. We need to work together, Aerith."

She put her hand on his and stared at them for a long minute. "Then there are things I need from you. Answers."

"So you said. But what could I tell one of the great Cetra?"

"You made Sephiroth."

He laughed at that, sounded almost hysterical for a minute, but she didn't allow herself to flinch. After a moment, he calmed himself enough to say that yes, he had. She wondered what that meant, but her mother said nothing and Hojo kept talking. West wasn't the only destination he suspected Sephiroth had in mind.

But he had other suspicions as well.

"You can't possibly be attracted enough to flirt with me, Aerith. You've known me your entire life."

"You were like a father to me. The closest thing I had, anyway. And then you acted like you hardly knew me."

"I'm not exactly the parenting type, Aerith."

She played with his tie, the silk smooth under her fingers. "No, I suppose you never were. But a lot of a girl's attractions come from her father figure. She's attracted to someone who's completely opposite... or someone who's exactly the same." Aerith tugged on the tie, pulling him closer and hesitantly kissing him on the cheek. There was something she couldn’t quite reach, ghosting alongside them like a breeze outside the window.

Hojo mumbled, his lips pressed against her neck. Aerith couldn't make out what he was saying, but she wasn't really listening - at least, not to him.

He burned against her, but everywhere she touched, she felt cool calm spreading from her hands and seeping into him. She didn't know if it would be enough, but it was the only thing she could do. Either the Planet would be able to cure him or it wouldn't. She pressed her lips to his and hoped.

Hojo pulled away and looked her in the eye. "You know what the Planet will ask of you, don't you?" His hand was in her hair, present but not pulling.

"If I knew, I wouldn't have asked you."

Hojo sighed and pulled her closer still, his face buried in her hair. "Ifalna told us once, when she was trying to convince your father to put Jenova back in the ice. The Planet requires a reunion of its own. Someone has to carry the intention into the lifestream."

"In other words..." The ghosting presence was cold beside his heat, but he was pulling away again, leaving her with it.

"You'll have to die." He stood and reached for his lab coat. "But my offer stands, Aerith. Come back to my lab and I think I can solve this."

Aerith continued to stare at the ceiling, but shook her head. "Some things are important enough to die for. I learned that from my parents." He left without saying anything more. She stayed where she was, trying to decide what to do.

She saw movement in the hallway and realized he hadn't shut the door all the way. Aerith started to get up, but the figure paused outside the door. She realized it was Cloud.

"Are you okay, Aerith?" he asked, ducking his head inside.

"Just laying down," she told him, forcing a smile. "I don't know why I'm so tired. There's just so many things I don't understand... I feel a little uneasy."

Cloud nodded and hesitated. She wondered if he was thinking about leaving or coming in. "Cloud...?"

He looked at her.

"What do you think of me?"

The soldier shook his head. "I dunno. I don't understand anything."

Aerith nodded. "...You're right. Even I don't understand myself.

"I wonder what part of me is like an Ancient? What is an Ancient supposed to be like? It's strange, isn't it? I don't understand it... Ah, I'm going around in circles. I wonder if there's any answer to this. Everything's so complicated." She thought about Hojo, about the Planet, bringing one to the other. Her mother’s reunion. Her intention. Sephiroth.

She paused, waiting to see if Cloud would say anything, but the faraway look was back, and she could practically see Tifa in his eyes.

"I'm going on to bed," she told him, and he closed the door as he walked away.

**Author's Note:**

> All the thanks in the world to Ambersweet for her beta talents!


End file.
